Download or read book Space Time Myth and Morals A Selection of Jao Tsung i s Studies on Cosmological Thought in Early China and Beyond written by Tsung-i Jao and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-09-12 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The articles assembled in this volume present an important selection of Professor Jao Tsung-i’s research in the field of the early Chinese intellectual tradition, especially as it concerns the human condition. Whether his focus is on myth, religion, philosophy or morals, Jao consistently aims to describe how the series of developments broadly associated with the Axial Age unfolded in China. He is particularly interested in showing how early China had developed its own notion of transcendence as well as a system of prediction and morals that enabled man to act autonomously, without recourse to divine providence.
Download or read book Space Time Myth and Morals A Selection of Jao Tsung I s Studies on Cosmological Thought in Early China and Beyond written by Tsung-I Jao and published by Collected Works of Jao Tsung-I. This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The articles in this volume present an important selection of Jao Tsung-i's research in the field of the early Chinese intellectual tradition, especially as concerns the question of the conditio humana. Whether his focus is on myth, religion, philosophy or morals, Jao constantly aims at describing the Chinese version of a series of developments that are broadly associated with the Axial Age in the study of the ancient world in general. He is particularly interested in showing how early China had developed its own notion of transcendence as well as a system of prediction and morals that allowed man to act on his own account, without having to rely on divine providence"--
Download or read book Histories of Spiritual Traditions in China written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2024-10-03 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover China's rich spiritual history through the monumental works of polymath Jao Tsung-i, presented in English for the first time. Throughout his far-reaching discussions of Chinese religious history ranging from prehistoric ancestor worship to Daoist immortality cultism and beyond, Jao’s studies draw upon an immense range of sources, including stele inscriptions, excavated manuscripts, and prehistoric artifacts. Engage with the very best of 20th-century Chinese-speaking sinology and gain new insights into China’s fascinating history of spiritual traditions. This tour de force in Chinese religious history is a must-read for anyone seeking to unravel the complexities of China's intersecting spiritual traditions.
Download or read book Staging Tianxia written by Lanlan Kuang and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2024-09-03 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Staging Tianxia explores the ancient Chinese vision of world order known as tianxia (all under heaven) by focusing on the historical, performative, and rhetorical processes of expressive arts and cultural heritages that inform a vision of China as a historically multiethnic and cosmopolitan nation. Author Lanlan Kuang unites multimedia ethnographic research and theoretical insights from ethnomusicology, philosophy, religious studies, performance studies, and cognitive science, with a focus on Dunhuang bihua yuewu, a modern interpretation inserted into the Chinese classical dance and theatrical arts tradition. Staging Tianxia thus aims to redefine Silk Road studies and Dunhuangology, a transdisciplinary field dedicated to studying the texts and art of Dunhuang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that connected China via the Silk Road with Central Asia, South Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Staging Tianxia is a careful ethnographic study that looks at the importance of performance tradition and poetics in the arts and aesthetic theory of China.
Download or read book Unlocking the Chinese Gate written by Galia Dor and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2024-05-01 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unlocking the Chinese Gate offers an innovative analysis of gates in early Chinese thought and material culture. Observing gates from various perspectives—including philosophy, architecture, and psychology—and through the conceptual lens of Chinese correlative thinking, Galia Dor conceptualizes the Chinese gate as a membrane-like apparatus that, from the space "in-between," efficaciously manifests (de) the Way (dao) into the "ten thousand" forms of actualized life. This methodology exposes an open-to-closed gradation between pairs of inside/outside (wai/nei) that resonates throughout the Chinese model of psychocosmic concentric circles. The consequential strategies (e.g., continuity/break, chaos/order) demonstrate how early Chinese cosmological, philosophical, and political idealities, as well as afterlife religious beliefs, were applied—including the various approaches to and practices of self-cultivation. The book sheds new light on ancient Chinese thought and material culture and offers points of comparison to Western thought and modern science, including a model of "decision-gating" that carries relevant implications and insights to our current lives.
Download or read book To Become a God written by Michael J. Puett and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-10-26 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evidence from Shang oracle bones to memorials submitted to Western Han emperors attests to a long-lasting debate in early China over the proper relationship between humans and gods. One pole of the debate saw the human and divine realms as separate and agonistic and encouraged divination to determine the will of the gods and sacrifices to appease and influence them. The opposite pole saw the two realms as related and claimed that humans could achieve divinity and thus control the cosmos. This wide-ranging book reconstructs this debate and places within their contemporary contexts the rival claims concerning the nature of the cosmos and the spirits, the proper demarcation between the human and the divine realms, and the types of power that humans and spirits can exercise. It is often claimed that the worldview of early China was unproblematically monistic and that hence China had avoided the tensions between gods and humans found in the West. By treating the issues of cosmology, sacrifice, and self-divinization in a historical and comparative framework that attends to the contemporary significance of specific arguments, Michael J. Puett shows that the basic cosmological assumptions of ancient China were the subject of far more debate than is generally thought.
Download or read book Explorations in Early Chinese Cosmology written by Henry Rosemont and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Papers originally presented at the Harvard Workshop on Classical Chinese thought in 1976. Contributors include David N. Keightley, Vitaly A. Rubin, James A. Hart, Gerald Swanson, John Louton, Jeffrey A. Howard, John Major, and Henry Rosemont, Jr. These scholarly focus on the origins and development of early Chinese cosmological views, as found on written materials from the oracle bones through the Book of Changes, the Spring & Autumn Annals, The Huainanzi, and early Han dynasty sources. This is a reprint of the original edition published in 1984.
Download or read book Histories of Spiritual Traditions in China written by Frank P Saunders Jr and published by . This book was released on 2024-10-24 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers the very first translated and annotated collection of the Jao Tsung-i's writings on religious studies, which includes his important studies on the history of Daoism and Buddhism, Tang studies, among other topics.
Download or read book The Shape of the Turtle written by Sarah Allan and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1991-02-21 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many Chinese philosophic concepts derive from an ancient cosmology. This work is the first reconstructions of the mythic thought of the Shang Dynasty (ca. 1700- 1100 B.C.) which laid the foundation for later Chinese patterns of thought. Allan regards the myth, cosmology, divination, sacrificial ritual, and art of the Shang as different manifestations of a common religious system and each is examined in turn, building up a coherent and consistent picture. Although primarily concerned with the Shang, this work also describes the manner in which Shang thought was transformed in the later textual tradition.
Download or read book China s Cosmological Prehistory written by Laird Scranton and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-08-22 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of the earliest creation traditions and symbols of China and their similarities to those of other ancient cultures • Reveals the deep parallels between early Chinese words and those of other ancient creation traditions such as the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt • Explores the 8 stages of creation in Taoism and the cosmological origins of Chinese ancestor worship, the zodiac, the mandala, and the I Ching • Provides further evidence that the cosmology of all ancient cultures arose from a single now-lost source Building on his extensive research into the sacred symbols and creation myths of the Dogon of Africa and those of ancient Egypt, India, and Tibet, Laird Scranton investigates the myths, symbols, and traditions of prehistoric China, providing further evidence that the cosmology of all ancient cultures arose from a single now-lost source. Scranton explores the fundamental similarities between the language that defined ancient Chinese cosmology and that of other creation traditions, revealing the connections between the phonetic structure of the words, their glyphs, and their use. He demonstrates striking parallels between the earliest systems of writing in China and the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. He examines the 8 levels of creation in Taoism and the cosmological origins of Chinese ancestor worship, mythical emperors, the zodiac, the mandala, and the I Ching. He details the fundamental principles of land-use in ancient China in relation to the symbolism of a Buddhist stupa and the Dogon granary, ritual shrines that are also the central symbol of other creation traditions. Understanding the true meanings of these symbol complexes also reveals the sophisticated scientific understanding of these ancient cultures, for these creation symbols directly correlate with our modern understanding of atoms and the energetic makeup of matter. In exploring Chinese cosmological traditions, Scranton sheds new light on the contention that the sacred knowledge of the ancients is the legacy of an earlier culture who gave primitive humanity the tools they needed to birth the first known civilizations.
Download or read book Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought written by John S. Major and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Huainanzi has in recent years been recognized by scholars as one of the seminal works of Chinese thought at the beginning of the imperial era, a summary of the full flowering of early Taoist philosophy. This book presents a study of three key chapters of the Huainanzi, "The Treatise on the Patterns of Heaven," "The Treatise on Topography," and "The Treatise on the Seasonal Rules," which collectively comprise the most comprehensive extant statement of cosmological thinking in the early Han period. Major presents, for the first time, full English translations of these treatises. He supplements the translations with detailed commentaries that clarify the sometimes arcane language of the text and presents a fascinating picture of the ancient Chinese view of how the world was formed and sustained, and of the role of humans in the cosmos.
Download or read book Astrology and Cosmology in Early China written by David W. Pankenier and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient Chinese were profoundly influenced by the Sun, Moon and stars, making persistent efforts to mirror astral phenomena in shaping their civilization. In this pioneering text, David W. Pankenier introduces readers to a seriously understudied field, illustrating how astronomy shaped the culture of China from the very beginning and how it influenced areas as disparate as art, architecture, calendrical science, myth, technology, and political and military decision-making. As elsewhere in the ancient world, there was no positive distinction between astronomy and astrology in ancient China, and so astrology, or more precisely, astral omenology, is a principal focus of the book. Drawing on a broad range of sources, including archaeological discoveries, classical texts, inscriptions and paleography, this thought-provoking book documents the role of astronomical phenomena in the development of the 'Celestial Empire' from the late Neolithic through the late imperial period.
Download or read book The Ordering of the Heavens and the Earth in Early Ch ing Thought written by John B. Henderson and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 602 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Cosmology and Logic in the Dao of Changes written by Baoshan Ma and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2019-08-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Book of Changes (Yijing, also known as I Ching) is generally recognized as the oldest among the ancient Chinese classics, tracing back to the yin-yang symbolic system that, according to traditional mythology, was created by the legendary Fu Xi (mid-29th century BCE). The Yijing's mystical origins and the dynamic nature of its image-numbers—the various diagrams, trigrams, and hexagrams—gave rise to subsequent interpretations by sages over millennia, along with differences in understanding. Ever since the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), there have been debates between two schools of thought: the image-number school, which focuses on the symbols as a means to divination; and the philosophy school, which values the work for its cosmological and ontological insights. Assimilating ideas from both schools, Ma Baoshan reestablishes the logical image-number system and reaffirms that this image-number logic is the foundation for understanding the Book of Changes in the context of contemporary research. As Ma explains in his introduction, "the aim of Cosmology and Logic in the Dao of Changes is not to study the image-number logic itself, but to discover the symbolic system inherent in the Book of Changes, and the image-number logic behind this system." His interpretations of the moving numbers and images: the Taiji, Hetu, and Luo-shu Diagrams, the Pre-heavens and Post-heavens Trigrams, as well as the 64 hexagrams, is always in the context of the continuity of mind and events. He renders this ontological existence as five onto-generative-beings (benti), which is a pioneering theory in the hermeneutical history of the Book of Changes. His theory is crucial in reminding researchers of this classic that without understanding its image-number foundation, it is impossible for anyone to comprehend it as a properly philosophical work.
Download or read book Kuan tzu written by Zhong Guan and published by . This book was released on 1965 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Reconsidering the Correlative Cosmology of Early China written by and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Spiritual Geography of Early Chinese Thought written by Kelly James Clark and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The notion of 'gods' and religious beliefs in early China are often considered to be either unique to a single non-representative thinker, and therefore irrelevant in the writings of mainstream Chinese thinkers, or inconsequential to Chinese moral and political thought. Rejecting the claim that religious practice plays a minimal philosophical role, Kelly James Clark and Justin Winslett offer a textual study that maps the religious terrain of early Chinese philosophical texts. They analyse the pantheon of disembodied spirits, from high gods down to ancestor spirits, and discuss their various representations as anthropomorphic, transcendent and enforcers of morality, as well as examining conceptions of the afterlife and the role of the religious ritual in moral formation. Demonstrating how religious beliefs are both textually endorsed and ritually embodied, this book reveals that religion in early China is neither philosophically irrelevant nor limited to the domain of cognition, and instead forms a complex philosophical system capable of adapting to social, economic, political and environmental conditions."--
